


Symptoms

by Tarlan



Category: A Gifted Man
Genre: Episode Tag, M/M, Plot What Plot, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-08
Updated: 2012-01-08
Packaged: 2017-10-29 04:59:33
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/316084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zeke needs an explanation following Michael's near death experience.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Symptoms

Zeke waited a full week, until he knew Michael had mostly recovered from the emergency hernia operation, before he cornered him in the small pharmacy. Not that Michael had yet realized he was cornered. Instead, Michael had his back to him as he selected the drugs he needed off the shelves but he glanced over his shoulder when Zeke closed the door behind him.

"Zeke?"

"You gonna tell me what was going through your head last week?"

By now Michael was facing him. "I don't know what you mean."

The slight dilation of his eyes, so easy to see in those blue eyes, and the rising flush on his neck was a dead give away that Michael knew exactly what Zeke was talking about. When Zeke had cornered him last week, it had been the doctor in him that had seen symptoms and formed a diagnosis that turned out to be one hundred percent correct. Strangulated hernia. At first he'd been a little angry when Kate had rushed in calling for his help after finding Michael face down in the snow, wondering why Michael hadn't trusted him to take a look earlier. That _tickle fight_ \--as Kate had called it--had been strange to say the least. It was if Michael had been pulling in two directions at once with one part of him wanting Zeke while the other pushed him away.

He really had thought Michael didn't trust him as a doctor, and it was not until much later when he sat down in his apartment alone and went over all the symptoms again in his head that he realized that one particular _symptom_ had been out of place. He could understand the slightly feverish look, the brightness in Michael's eyes and the slight tremble of his hands... but not the half-hard cock that had brushed against Zeke's leg as they _fought_.

Putting aside Michael's backseat operating style--man, did he have control issues--Michael had not questioned any of Zeke's work with any of the patients at Clinica Sanando, or even his operating skills when seen up close on Michael's own body. So if Michael's refusal to drop his pants had nothing to do with his distrust of Zeke's medical skills, then maybe it had everything to do with that single inexplicable symptom. It took only a little longer to go through other moments when they worked in close proximity to realize that Michael always went alpha male around him, as if he was deliberately trying to keep Zeke at arm's length.

Zeke took a step forward, and when Michael realized he had no room to take a step back, he squared his shoulders instead and his lips took on that familiar curl.

"Unless this is important, I have a patient waiting."

There it was, the alpha posing, and Zeke felt a smile tug at his lips.

"No you don't."

Michael frowned and made to push passed him but Zeke held his ground, and rather than get into another embarrassing _tickle fight_ , Michael stepped back.

"If this is about last week then--"

"Yeah, it is."

Michael actually started to look a little embarrassed, but Zeke suspected that he wasn't used to being called out on his attitude. It took someone with a healthy ego and brimming with confidence to become one of the top neurosurgeons in the country--and possibly the world. "It was nothing professional--"

"I know."

Confusion filled Michael's eyes but it was quickly cast aside. "Then I'll get back to my next patient."

"No. Kate is seeing the last patient of the day."

"Then I'll go back to Holt--"

"You really don't want to admit it."

Michael huffed. "Admit what?"

"This."

Zeke stepped into Michael's personal space and kissed him squarely on the lips. The dazed shock lasted only a moment before Michael was pushing him back half-heartedly with shaking arms, but Zeke stood his ground once more. When he moved in for a second kiss, any attempt to stop him was feeble at best, though it still took a moment before he felt Michael give in to the inevitable and relax into the kiss. This time when Zeke pulled back, Michael looked lost.

"I can't do this," he whispered.

Zeke slipped his hand between their bodies and stroked over the hardness of Michael's erection. "Yes, you can... but not here."

On the drive back to his apartment, Zeke looked in the rear mirror constantly, half expecting to see Michael's expensive sports car peel off and disappear into the night but when he pulled up to the curb, Michael pulled in right behind him. He saw Michael hesitate behind the wheel but Zeke raised an eyebrow and headed up the half-dozen, snow-covered steps to the entry hall, smiling when he heard the muffled close of a car door and light footsteps. He felt a moment of doubt as he pulled out his keys to his apartment on the second floor. Michael was used to far more luxuriant accommodation than Zeke's apartment, but a full time doctor in a free clinic didn't earn even close to the amount of a world renowned neurosurgeon.

The apartment was quite spacious and well decorated though, and it was warm after the bitter cold of the snow outside. Deciding not to give Michael a chance to get cold feet, Zeke pulled him into a hard and deep kiss before they had even removed their coats. When he pulled back, Michael looked dazed, with the blue of his eyes almost lost against the darkness of dilated pupils. His lips looked red and swollen from the kiss, and Zeke wanted them both naked right now. He fumbled at the buttons on Michael's coat for only a second before Michael brushed away his fingers and worked the buttons alone. It took an eternity to strip but they tumbled onto the bed naked, hands gliding over all they could reach and bodies sliding together, thrusting almost desperately against each other until Michael's soft moan accompanied his own as liquid warmth spilled between them.

They basked in the afterglow until Zeke could no longer stand the cooling mess on his stomach. He groaned and pushed up, padding softly to the bathroom and bringing back a washcloth a few minutes later. He paused on the threshold, thinking he heard Michael talking to someone, and wondered if he had retrieved his cellphone to contact Rita. That woman loved to mother Michael.

Michael looked across at him, and for the first time since they met, all the macho, alpha posing was gone. Instead, Michael was smiling softly as Zeke settled back on the bed beside him. He even let Zeke clean him, being careful around the healing scar that would be barely noticeable within a few more weeks. Kate had a done a good job closing up.

"You okay," Zeke had to ask.

He noticed Michael's eyes flick to the side for just a second, as if looking at someone sitting beside him, before he looked right into Zeke's eyes and smiled.

"Yes. I am now."

Michael tugged Zeke down, and Zeke drew the covers up over them as he settled against Michael's warm body.

Outside the snow was falling softly, drifting passed the window, and for a moment Zeke thought he saw a woman's silhouette against the muted orange glow of the street lamps, and he thought of Anna. But inside his apartment, with Michael soft and heavy with sleep beside him, Zeke felt a warmth that went beyond skin deep, and he smiled as he joined Michael in sleep.

END

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Stuck](https://archiveofourown.org/works/358929) by [Cinderella1181](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cinderella1181/pseuds/Cinderella1181)




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